OMA/AMO has opened is Planetary Garden in Palermo, Sicily for Manifesta 12, the European Nomadic Biennial, held in a different host city every two years. Celebrating its 12th edition this year, OMA had been announced as the Mediator of the Biennial to study the complex architectural and urban structure of the city of Palermo for 2018, directed by OMA Partner Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli.

Opened to the public on June 16, 2018, OMA/AMO has opened its Planetary Garden, serving as a broad urban study of Palermo. Named The Planetary Garden: Cultivating Coexistence, Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli followed a different curatorial model for the 2018 Biennale by revealing Palermo Atlas.  

Image © OMA

Alongside Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli, the biennial is co-curated by Dutch journalist and filmmaker Bregtje van der Haak, Spanish architect and researcher Andrés Jaque, Swiss contemporary art curator Mirjam Varadinis.

"More than a city, Palermo is a node in an expanded geography of flows – of people, capital, goods, data, species. Although historically Arab-Norman, the Sicilian capital has been reshaped by recent migrations and now counts Tamil, Somali and Nigerian identities as part of a complex anatomy. Its markets and architecture, nature and ecosystem, harbours and maritime routes, make it a laboratory for cross-pollination and an incubator of global conditions," said Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli.

Basile Archive, Palermo Atlas. Image © OMA

Manifesta 12 Palermo explores coexistence in a world moved by invisible networks, transnational private interests, algorithmic intelligence, environmental crisis and ever-increasing inequalities. It looks at this world through the unique lens of Palermo – a city at the crossroads of three continents in the heart of the Mediterranean. Closely collaborating with Palermitan partners, Manifesta 12 co-inhabits Palermo, as an ideal place to investigate the challenges of our time.

Hindu Temple via de Spuches, Palermo Atlas. Image © Delfino Sisto Legnani, courtesy OMA

"Taking the urban research as it’s starting point, the Palermo Atlas allows the creative mediators to amplify the already existing energies of the city of Palermo in a more sustainable way, supported by Manifesta 12’s local team of mediators, educators, producers," said Hedwig Fijen, Director of Manifesta.

The Planetary Garden: Cultivating Coexistence hosts three main sections: Garden of Flows, Out of Control Room and City on Stage. Garden of Flows explores the concept of toxicity, the life of plants, and the culture of gardening in relation to the resources of the planet and the global common good. Out of Control Room seeks to make the invisible networks of digital flows tangible. City on Stage expresses the stratified nature of Palermo.

Palermo Atlas. Image © OMA

Artists, writers, architects and film directors have developed projects in close collaboration with local organizations, resulting in 30 new site-specific commissions displayed in iconic locations across Palermo, some of which were never previously used as exhibition spaces. Manifesta 12 presents the work of 48 interdisciplinary participants to the public from 16 June to 4 November 2018.

Strategy of intervention of Palermo Atlas. Image © OMA

"Today Palermo is an incubator of the global problematic. A place where key transnational conflicts converge – from climate change to the simultaneous impact of tourism and the refugee crisis, from illegal trafficking to the chronic economic impasse of the South – making it an ideal blueprint for the Mediterranean and Europe as a whole," added Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli in his statement.

"Palermo is less like a city as we know it; it acts more as a node for an expanded geography of networks and systems – of people, capital, goods, data, species – rapidly reshaping its identity and role within the geopolitical scenario and reaching far beyond the European Mediterranean area, from sub- Saharan Africa to Scandinavia, from Southeast Asia to Gibraltar and the Americas," he continued.

Map of communities, Palermo Atlas. Image © OMA

Mediterranean system of flows, Palermo Atlas. Image © OMA

Project facts

Project name: Manifesta 12 – Palermo Atlas

Location: Palermo, Sicily 

Client: Manifesta

Year: 2016 – 2018 

Status: Completed 

Program: Research

Partner: Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli 

Manifesta Director: Hedwig Fijen

Team: Giacomo Ardesio, Giulio Margheri, Marcello Carpino, Martina Motta, Paul Cournet 

Critical Essays: Nora Akawi, Giuseppe Barbera, Marina Otero Verzier, Giorgio Vasta

Interviews: Alterazioni Video, Paola Barbera, Letizia Battaglia, Francesco Bellina, Mario Damiani Almeyda, Maria Di Carlo, Massimiliano Marafon Pecoraro, Franco Maresco, Antonella Sorce Basile, Viviana Trapani

Voices: Paola Barbera, Roberto Collovà, Claudio Gulli

External Contributors: Pietro Airoldi, Alterazioni Video, Davide Rapp

Photography: Francesco Bellina, CAVE Studio, Delfino Sisto Legnani, Minimum

Top image: Orto Botanico, Palermo Atlas. Image © Delfino Sisto Legnani, courtesy OMA

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